Improvements made at Peterborough primary school

Inspectors carried out a monitoring visit a few weeks ago and found that Gladstone Primary School’s new leadership had taken ‘effective action to remedy the inadequacies in safeguarding arrangements’.

Following the school being rated inadequate the governing body was disbanded and an interim executive board (IEB) was installed to run the school.

Gladstone Primary School’s interim headteacher, Simon Martin, was appointed by the IEB.

Inspectors have now praised the new team in charge as they have ‘rapidly instilled a culture of safeguarding throughout the school….(and) inadequacies have been eliminated.’

Simon Martin, interim headteacher at Gladstone Primary School, added:“I am very pleased with the outcome from this inspection. I joined the school as interim headteacher in June 2016 and I have seen real improvement in pupils’ attitudes towards their learning. With the right support and encouragement they can achieve their full potential .”

In the monitoring report it said that parents and carers said they were ‘pleased with the improvements being made to the management of the pupils’ safety, care, welfare and behaviour.’

Councillor John Holdich, leader of the council and cabinet member for education, skills and university, said: “My officers have worked with the new leadership team to ensure that a safeguarding action plan resulted in improvement at the school. Ofsted inspectors have found this to be the case and the headteacher along with his staff have been rightly praised in this monitoring report.

“I believe we took decisive action to remove the previous governing body and appoint an IEB. This had led to rapid improvement. There’s still work to be done and we will continue to work closely with schools that require improvement in the city.”

Inspectors also highlighted a set of rules that have been introduced to support the management of pupil behaviour. The ‘Gladstone Rules’ are singled out in the Ofsted monitoring report as being very effective, with older pupils telling inspectors that as a result ‘behaviour has improved considerably since the previous inspection.’

Gary Perkins, assistant director of education at Peterborough City Council, said: “I have been really impressed with the changes I have seen at Gladstone Primary School since Simon Martin took charge. His team are doing really important work in turning things around at the school, insisting on the highest standards of behaviour and inspiring and encouraging pupils.”

Inspectors said that all policies related to safeguarding and the management of pupil behaviour should be fully reviewed to represent current practice and published on the school’s website before the school becomes an academy.